1. The role of educational and learning
pc games in the development of
children with disabilities
Mezei Beáta
Master of Speech Pathology
and Audiology
Babes-Bolyai University
Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2. Key concepts and structure
 Definitions (play, pc game, disability)
 Educational pc games vs. entertaining
games
 Playing vs. gaming
 Types of educational pc games
 “+” and “–” sides of educational pc games

3. Introduction
 Games and games-based learning - part of
education for decades ;
 Lev Vygotsky: play is the leading source of
development - preschool years: basic social skills/
sense of self /learn to interact /role-play ;
 Play is often interpreted as frivolous; yet the player
can be intently focused on his or her objective,
particularly when play is structured and goal-
oriented, as in a game;
 Because computer games are a subset of games,
everything we can say about games in general
applies also to them;

4. Defintions
 PLAY:activity which proceeds within certain limits of time and
space, in a visible order, according to rules freely accepted,
and outside the sphere of necessity or material utility; The
play-mood is one of rapture and enthusiasm; (J. Huizinga,
1938)
 GAME:organized play including six key structural elements:
rules, goals and objectives, outcomes and
feedback,conflict/competition/challenge/opposition,
interaction, and representation or story;(Prensky, 2001)
 DISABILITY: condition or function judged to be significantly
impaired relative to the usual standard of an individual or
group; The term is used to refer to individual functioning,
including physical impairment, sensory impairment, cognitive
impairment, intellectual impairment mental illness, and various
types of chronic disease;

5. Benefits of games
1. Games are a form of fun. That gives us enjoyment and pleasure.
2. Games are form of play. That gives us intense and passionate
involvement.
3. Games have rules. That gives us structure.
4. Games have goals. That gives us motivation.
5. Games are interactive. That gives us doing.
6. Games are adaptive. That gives us flow.
7. Games have outcomes and feedback. That gives us learning.
8. Games have win states. That gives us ego gratification.
9. Games have conflict/competition/challenge/opposition. That gives
us adrenaline.
10. Games have problem solving. That sparks our creativity.
11. Games have interaction. That gives us social groups.
12. Games have representation and story. That gives us emotion.
(Prensky)

6. Logic game
 Make the frogs to change their places (green ones
with brown ones).
 They can go only forward, and can jump only across
one frog.

7. Game genre (Hertz, 1997)
 action games (reaction based games);
 adventure games (solving logical puzzles to
progress though a virtual world) ;
 fighting games;
 puzzle games (such as Tetris);
 role-playing games;
 Simulations;
 sports games and strategy games;

8. Entertaining games vs. educational
games
 Dr Diana G. Oblinger (2006) :
 “Although games can be effective learning
environments not all games are effective, nor are all
games educational. Similarly, not all games are good
for all learning or for all learning outcomes. The key
is how games are used. Simply adding games to a
curriculum does not mean they are integrated with it.
Integration requires understanding of the medium
and its alignment with the subject, the instructional
strategy, the student’s learning style and the
intended outcomes.”

9. Entertaining games vs. educational
games
 Clark Abt -Serious Games- about educational
games: serious games have “educational purpose
and are not intended to be played primarily for
amusement. This does not mean that serious games
are not, or should not be, entertaining.”
 Harteveld and his collaborators theorise that a player
should understand that a game has specific learning
goals in order to appreciate the results;
 the context of game-based learning is probably more
important than the specific features and/or content of
the game itself;

10. Educational games vs. Entertaining
games
- similarities and differences-
Educational games Entertaining games
Not about winning Not about winning
Explicit learning goals Objectives are not clearly
defined
Cheating is not okay Cheating is often okay
Positive/negative reinforcement Little after-action review
Guided experiential learning Played primarily for amusement

11. Playing or gaming?
-through the prism of disabilities-
 PLAY  GAME
+ +
 is more freely  well defined objective
 involves the whole person in to  stable structure, even
the activity predictable
 gives children a sense of power  can be adapted to particular
and control needs of individual
 promotes imagination  gives children a sense of power
 Helps with social interacting and control
 Promotes language and  learning without too much
communication effort
-
-  even if they are intractive direct
human interaction is missing
 not always has clearly defined
goals  Isolation
 can be chaotic  provide few opportunities for
movement
 may have physical limitations

12. Let’s play -Expedition on Tau Ceti 4
 Imagine that you are in an expedition to on other planet, and
you are the member of the council which decides the lifestyle
of people with disabilities on that planet.
 That planet has highly advanced computer technology, which
can assure an experience similar to the technology presented
in Avatar, the 3D movie.
 So a person with any disability can live a virtual life in which
he or she is healthy or even has superpower. But in this case
they will have no real contact with family or society.
 If this program will not be implemented, people with special
needs will live similar as on Earth.
 Question: How should live people with special needs on Tau
Ceti IV?

13. Impacts and outcomes of games
 Positive or negative effects
 Intended or unintended effects
 General or specific effects

14. Learning outcomes of educational pc
games
 skills based learning outcomes
– (technical and motor skills)
 cognitive outcomes
– declarative (knowledge of facts and data)
– procedural (knowledge about how to perform a task)
 strategic (the ability to apply rules and strategies)
 affective outcomes (beliefs or attitudes)
(Garris, Ahlers and Driskell -2002)

15. Decisive factors in choosing
educational games
 age, both physical and mental
 developmental level
 the child's interests
 attention span
 specific learning goals
 desired social skills
 availability of others to interact with
 your child's unique overall needs

16. Positive sides of educational pc games
true the prism of disability
 can be easily adapted to individual's specific needs in order to create
a customized treatment plan;
 great diversity;
 attract participation by individuals across many demographic
boundaries (e.g., age,gender, ethnicity, educational status or
disability);
 can assist children in setting goals, ensuring goal rehearsal, providing
feedback, reinforcement, and maintaining records of behavioural
change;
 allows to measure performance on a very wide variety of tasks, and
can be easily changed, standardized and understood;
 are fun and stimulating for participants;
 provide an innovative way of learning;
 provide elements of interactivity that stimulate learning;

17. Positive sides of educational pc games
true the prism of disability
 may help in the development of transferable IT skills;
 researchers have found that children's reading and spelling
abilities significantly improved with exposure to educational
video games;
 improve spatial abilities, the ability to create and apply multiple
strategies, and may help develop critical analyzing techniques;
 students are required to meet and exceed challenges, which
may increase their desire to meet challenges in other contexts
as well;
 A program is infinitely ‘patient’ and can present a lesson or idea
repeatedly and consistently without variation or fatigue;
 educational programs can be delivered at a distance ;

18. Negative sides of educational pc
games true the prism of disability
 Video games are often portrayed in a negative manner
because they are seen as having an "addictive" quality;
 At the present time, the most popular games are usually
violent;
 Another disadvantage of using games as part of the curriculum
is the chance of over-use; When students and teachers begin
to rely too heavily on the use of video games to learn or review
material, they risk losing the skills that allow them to function
outside of a digital source;
 Videogame technology has rapidly changed acrossm time;
Therefore, videogames are constantly being upgraded which
makes it hard to evaluate educational impact across studies;

19. Educational pc games and children
with autism
 In a number of studies, educational video games have been found
effective in helping children with autism in several developmental
areas; Children with autism have difficulty with facial recognition and
nonverbal communication ; which is thought to contribute to problems
with development of complex social skills; Video games that enhance
perceptual discrimination have potential in helping with memory and
facial discrimination;
 Autistic children who have difficulty communicating or expressing
themselves often can learn non-verbally through music and art in video
games;
 Regularity and predictability are important to autistic people and
computers are, by nature, consistent and logical;
 Aaps for autism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_8b7PgnNQQ

20. Conclusions
 Children with disabilities generally have special needs regarding to
their education; Some of those needs can be met by educational pc
games; As the technologies become more advanced and more
available there is a significant opportunity to improve the quality of
education of children with special needs;
 Technology can never be a substitute for the human teacher but
educational softwares are tools that the teacher can choose to use;
Constant monitoring at all levels is also vital ;
 Educational pc games can also form useful connections between
people with different disabilities;
 It is important to be kept a balance between the use of educational pc
games and other learning methods which requires real human
interactions in the developmental process of children with special
needs;

21. References
 Griffiths, M.(2002).The educational benefits of Videogames. Education and
Health;
 Information And Communication Technology In Special Education (2000).
Unesco Institute For Information Technologies In Education. Moscow.
 Khine, M. (2011).Playful Teaching, Learning Games. Sense Publishers;
 Smed,J.,& Hakonen, H.(2003). Towards a Definition of a Computer Game.
Turku Centre for Computer Science;
 Barendregt,W.,&Bouwhuis D.G.,& Ridder, H.(2006)Evaluating fun and usability
in computer games with children. Technische Universiteit Eindhoven;
 Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: Mc Graw Hill.
 Gee, J. P. (2004). What video games have to teach us about learning and
literacy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
 http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/learning/computer-learning-games.shtml
 http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/games-and-learning